posted on Nov, 29 2004 @ 01:44 AM
The government of Iran has issued an offer to Iraq that would provide training to Iraqi police and border guards. The offer came days before a
scheduled meeting between security chief of Iraq and its neighboring states. Egypt as well as Jordan has offered to train Iraqi security personnel as
well. Iraqi officials have been critical of Iran claiming that they supply the insurgents with weapons.
story.news.yahoo.com
TEHRAN, Iran - Iran offered to train Iraqi police and border guards two days before it was scheduled to host a meeting of security chiefs from Iraq's
neighboring states, the official news agency reported Sunday.
It was unclear how Iraq would respond to the Iranian offer. The countries fought a war from 1980-88 that killed or wounded nearly one million people
on both sides.
"The Islamic Republic is ready to train Iraqi police and border guards and even equip them as well as help with the country's reconstruction," said
Ali Asghar Ahmadi, Iran's deputy Interior Minister for Security Affairs, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency.
Egypt and Jordan also have offered to train Iraqi security personnel and technocrats. Iraqi officials have criticized Iran for leaving its long
borders with Iraq open to insurgents, and for "meddling" in their country's affairs. Iraqi Defense Minister Hazem Shaalan had said Iran was his
country's "first enemy" because it provided guns to insurgents. The United States has demanded that Iran do more to stop foreign fighters from
crossing into Iraq.
Please visit the link provided for the complete story.
It is an interesting development. It comes on the heels of a recent meeting of western and Arab countries where they unanimously cave support to the
Iraqi election process as well as the January 30th vote. An expert feels that Iran is trying to send a message to the United States that it too is
wary of threat of Al Qaeda. Its easy to forget that Iran never supported the Taliban, not Bin Laden. It will be interesting to see if Iraq take up the
offer.